Good and Evil Online

Good and Evil Online (usually abbreviated to GEO) is a MMORPG computer game. It was released in mid 2006 and quickly gained worldwide popularity. GEO has a revolutionary interface, shown by the fact it is different for most, if not every, player.

The Canon Author who originally created GEO is Kristin Darken. She has provided information on the underlying mechanics of GEO in various forum postings, both at Big Closet/Top Shelf and in the Crystal Hall forums.

A number of the central characters take part in one or more GEO quests that are scattered through several stories. One story which prominently features GEO is the fanfic turned canon Whisper by Sleethr. The discussions on this story, both at Big Closet/Top Shelf and in the Crystal Hall forums have provided Kristin with a venue to expound on how GEO works.

NOTE - The text in italics after the links can be used as a browser find command to go to the exact place in the story.

Product History

Enigma Solution, the company behind it, had pulled off an unprecedented release with almost no bugs or balance issues coming out of beta. It was strange, given the almost non-existent marketing efforts from a previously unknown gaming company, but no one who had played or seen the game in action could deny its quality.

it wasn’t possible to download GEO.

It takes four DVDs to install.

There was "an expansion little more than a month after release".

It's not possible to "hack GEO for log in location info".

Game Mechanics

Character State

Notes about character playability were provided in the Crystal Hall Forums.

Characters are 'always' playable... however, unlike many games, you cannot take them out of context. If you're on an epic raid into dark mountain territory, you can't log in on your character on a non-raid day and port the character to a town, help lowbies, do some crafting, and then port back to the raid area. Characters don't get that sort of OOC (out of character) freedom. So sometimes, if you are doing important stuff that requires multiple people to stay alive, you can't play a given character. So mostly, you play an alternate character until your group/raid is ready again.

...

Also note that an 'offline' character is not an inactive one. Several options along offline characters to train, hunt, patrol, camp, or a variety of other things while not controlled by the character. In hostile territory, they are even at risk of being chased or killed (though most options provide for the possibility of hiding and avoiding combat). Still, this is why groups rarely go into hostile territory lightly... and always include time for setup of a defensible camp for those people offline. In really hostile/contested locations, groups will petition for GM oversight/protection during down time. This is one of those cases where characters are 'locked' into a sort of safe mode until both sides are ready to continue.

Character Deaths

Details on character deaths were provided in the Crystal Hall Forums.

GEO has a perma-death system... but it also has necromantic and resurrection type magics available. Part of the core story is that what makes a hero special is that they are like the Avatars of the WU in a sense... that it is the combination of an external spirit or entity riding/guiding the individual that brings them the ability to grow and progress in the way they do. 'Normal' people are limited by natural potentials and can only learn quickly under ideal conditions - great teachers, proper training, constant challenges to their ability, etc. Those who are illuminated/darkened by one of these other beings have unexplained insights, can learn and master skills purely intuitively, and can even push their mental and physical potentials upward, such that with new training they can be even stronger, faster, and so forth.

When someone in this world dies, it frees the spirit to move through a separate parallel realm that resembles the one the living see. These spirits can master additional skills, including the ability to draw life from the world and spontaneously re-ignite their bond with their dead body. Assuming, of course, they have the skill and can draw the life force together fast enough to do it before the body's deterioration becomes too much. This is aided by the fact that most adventurers carry charms/runes that create a stasis field that prevents their body from decaying. Or that retrieves it to a home city/guild hall location.

But even if the individual dies and the body is irretrievable... it is possible for the spirit to find a new host. Much of the potential of the original hero is imbued upon the new host... though, often, training has to be undertaken for that potential to be reached to the same skill levels as the previous host.

Or... to explain it another way... it's complicated.

These details were expounded upon later in the thread.

The "I'm dead" realm of the spirits doesn't approach the physical world close enough for someone to try to banish you. The only way to be a Ghost in the sense that you are saying is to take one of the alternate paths out of death, into undeath. Of course, Necromancy of all types is classed as evil and will quickly drag you to the dark side (one of the ways to switch faction from Good to Evil). And then, as a Ghost; interacting with other players in PvP can indeed get you banished. Or entrapped (living Necromancers have lots of spells to control the undead - as do undead necromancers). A banishment breaks your connection to the living world... at best, this is the same as dying when you were living. Which isn't a huge hindrance once you've trained enough in the necromantic side of things to come back as a Ghost. Consider it as medium duration crowd control.

At worst... it could mean dissolution... which is permadeath... for both undead and any living present in the spirit only.

Actually, there are 'good' times for dissolution. For instance, dissolution through laying the dead to rest allows you to be free to pass your power permanently to a new host assuming you don't already have a successor/heir set up. If you HAVE set up a successor, the power can pass without your previous host dying first.

Additional followup yields the following.

As dpragan says... plus the loss of a lot of active skill pts, depending on the means used to bring the character back to life. This is reflected 'in story' by the concept of individuals being granted these ability to learn and gain power quickly because a Spirit from outside their world bonds to them. The Spirit itself carries the weight of 'potential' ability and the physical body adapts to grow into that heroic nature. But as an added 'benefit' of this dual nature, the character body tends not to be ravaged by wild beasts and deteriorates slowly. And this aspect can be enhanced with magical items, giving you even more time to recover in the event of death.

But for most people, exploring the world and playing the 'ghost' side game will be interesting enough that they will have enough skill levels in Spirit side abilities to return to life themselves without outside help by the time they are an experienced hero. Such things still take time and come at a cost... so retreat is always considered a valid option, unlike most games today where a 'wipe' and either resetting the fight or zerging it are considered standard options.

Archetypes

Character Archetypes were explained in the Big Closet/Top Shelf discussion of the Whisper fanfic.

GEO doesn't use classes at all, just archetypes. The difference being that archetypes define the starting focus of the character and only loosely direct progression... where classes don't really give you 'history' but they determine pretty much everything about how the character grows over time. A GEO archetype provides core skill trees (an Enchanter, for example, will begin with Lore branches in Magic, Mystic Forces, and Arcane Languages; they'll have Crafting Branches in Magical Devices, Alchemy, Runecrafting, and Scribe; they'll have Research branches and Combat branches in Magic, Mystic Forces, etc. Most of the same branches and specific skills available for selection to an Enchanter might also be available to a Mage (specializing in direct focused magic usually in elemental or force based energies), a Battlemage (a focus on indirect, long channeled magic extremely powerful but easily interrupted / prevented by disrupting concentration), an Artificer (someone who operates in combat as a magic-user but casts no spells... all power is sourced in objects of some sort), an Alchemist (similar to an Enchanter except focusing on consumable substances for temporary effect), and so on. And two characters starting in different archetypes could eventually synch up to matching abilities (though it would be a challenge to pull it off).

The other part of what makes archetypes different from classes is that classes define what new abilities come to the character based on levels within that class. The archetype system only defines how the character gains the most 'experience' ... An Enchanter, for example, primarily gains from Crafting/Gathering efforts. Secondary from Research/Exploration, then from Combat, and finally from RP. A Soldier would gain primarily from Combat, then Research/Exploration, RP, Crafting. And so on. This means that an Enchanter or Alchemist (both of whom use Crafting as a primary) would get more out of spending time gathering materials than would a Mage (who gain primarily from Research/Exploration, secondary from Combat). But that doesn't mean the Mage cannot learn to do all the same crafting that an Enchanter could... it would just take more effort. Just as an Enchanter can learn to exchange spells in combat with a Mage on an equal level, it just takes more effort to get there.

Where this applies to the story is that Whisper learning Illusionist magic is far less unique than Brenda thinks. Most games limit things that way though, so its not really a huge mistake for a player to make... as long as you're aware of it. The means of going about it is fairly close to what you've mentioned though. You have to learn the core Lore and Research skills from training, somewhere. Then like any other skill/ability in the game, you train to raise potentials and you use the skill in actual situations for it to gain 'actual' skill until you reach your potential and have to train more.

Additional commentary was also posted in the Crystal Hall forums.

First point I'd like to make is that just because Nikki/Aung are magic experts and that they are investigating the game's magical aspects; does not mean that they are playing a magic based character. After all, Seramis is called the "Bandit Queen" ... there IS a reason for that title. Additionally, despite having organized a third faction in a game designed for two factions; or perhaps as a result of that... you shouldn't assume that Seramis is automatically one of the most powerful characters around. With all the time she spends investigating things instead of grinding/skilling up; she isn't going to be top tier on her own merits. She IS, however, a charismatic leader who has drawn powerful people to her banner. Most of her 'council' are going to be vastly more powerful than she is simply because THEY are playing the game while she's sorting through details that they bring to her. Most of her actual power in the game is reliant on the control over a font and the bargaining power that resource brings.

Case in point... Whisper, despite being a thief and not an assassin IS strong enough in combat terms to take down Seramis. If Brian had chosen to go in that direction. Most of the risk came, not in the kill, but in the escape. However, Damper's character IS an assassin... and has been played as a killer of other players' characters for the half year of game time GEO has been out. Not out investigating magic. Not exploring or participating in guild activities as an inhouse lock picker and trap detector. As someone who sneaks into places and kills people. Without something special happening that balanced the equation... ShadowKiller could have mopped up the place with both Whisper and Seramis working together and still had a hand tied behind his back.

However, both Whisper and Seramis DO have one advantage that Damper's character does not... they have both had the good fortune of having had access to a font for certain special quests and empowerment options. And while it isn't something Sleethr learned from me, the champion of the font (and that person's designated defenders/champions) do receive fairly significant boosts in strength during attacks on their home turf. The intent being, of course, that the turnover of a font is meant to be an 'army' scale event... not something that happens easily by one higher skilled character. The font controllers basically become game bosses... under certain circumstances. This is why I've not challenged the resolution of this scene. The way it happens fits details in the game, even if that comes as a surprise.

And ShadowKiller is probably already at least partly undead... because no one who trains in the Dark lands by going around killing other peoples characters has done so without ever dying even once. So he's already mastered some of the techniques by which ghosts can return to life and will probably only be set back a couple weeks worth of effort. He'll still be pissed though... and yes, will probably spend much of the rest of his life wanting to take out Whisper.

Experience

An explanation of how Experience (XP) and Archetypes interact was provided in the Crystal Hall forums.

GEO does still have XP... and each archetype earns it from one of three categories of action (combat, exploration, crafting, etc). However, this just generates a pool from which ability and skill potential can grow. it doesn't directly tie into a character level.

Also, while there are no character levels in GEO, there ARE skill levels or ranks which are basically noun name generalizations for a range of skill values. Think: Unskilled, Dabbler, Novice, Initiate, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master, Expert, Savant, Sage, etc.

Being able to jump a specific Lore, Skill, or Craft by five levels is an almost ridiculous reward... though in reality, doing so would be capped by pre-requisites. So really, you might put jump a single skill two or three levels and boost the pre-req abilities one level each. Any way you look at it, it significantly boosts character potential very quickly in a way that normally would take weeks (if not months) of play time to achieve even on a fairly new character... just finding adequate challenges to boost skills at the higher levels can take weeks.

Also, look at the Game entities section for commentary about how general skill sets vary from server to server.

Equipment

A brief comment about equipment was provided in the Big Closet/Top Shelf discussion of the Whisper fanfic.

And finally, metal / armor doesn't inherently hinder use of magic. Wearing plate armor might cause some manual dexterity problems that would reduce the accuracy of physical casting... but not all types of magic require physical hand/arm/body movements. It's also completely possible to have cloth armor that (through magic) has all the combat properties of metal armors. Mostly, they're more costly... its easier to enchant something with magical defenses by enhancing the existing properties than to impart properties that the object didn't have at all. But its entirely possible to do the chain mail bikini in GEO and for it to be just as effective in combat.

Additional details were provided later in the discussion of the same chapter of the fanfic.

Yes though in most RP games and fantasy settings, it doesn't matter what the material is.. even though the 'in story' explanation is that its a material issue. Usually in games its purely a mechanics balance issue with material or encumbrance issues as the 'cover up' story. There ARE materials in GEO that inhibit magic and they can be crafted into armor... and in those cases, it is purely a materials based limitation. Common materials like bronze, iron, steel, or leather... do not have any particular mystic signature in that world. However, you can research ways to craft armor with almost any leather, scales, ore, chitin, etc that you can manage to gather. Each of those will have its own material profile that will affect how the resulting armor will protect the wearer from any type of damage.

In GEO, the use of armor by itself takes a certain amount of skill... and that impacts any physical action you take. The weight (determined by material and coverage), the fit (an aspect of the crafting), the quality (also part of the crafting) and the current state of repair all influence that modifier. And as you mention, there are some physical demands in wearing armor that building up musculature and flexibility counters... and any time used for it is time that you're not using studying/researching new spells, so there's a bit of a balancing act required for combining disparate areas of study. However, its an open ended (no levels, no experience/skill cap) system... so it might take you twice as long (or more) to master the skills needed to be both a warrior and a mage... but you can do it. The real difficulty can be in finding someone to teach you the core skills... most NPC trainers will not take on an apprentice who cannot be their student full time (and mostly, those are only teaching 'new' players). This means you need to find some way to convince a trainer... or find a player willing to take on the effort of teaching you (yes, players can train others in most skill branches as long as they have sufficiently mastered them).

Fonts

An overview of fonts was provided in the Big Closet/Top Shelf discussion of the Whisper fanfic.

The Fonts are something of a combination of massive pillar of mystic energy that comes out of the earth and rushes up into the sky... and a well/gateway/creature representing the embodiment of one of the two dynamic forces in the game (Good and Evil). So... stealing it? Not really an option. Unauthorized access? Using the energy of the Font for personal actions (those who control the Font gain the ability to fuel transformations among their allies into 'avatars' ... when controlled by Evil, it is a transformation into a monster... when controlled by the Good, it's usually more subtle... redefining archetypes, mainly). But its also possible to fuel 'global' spells that affect a guild or even the entire side... so ensuring that the other side doesn't gain control is a big deal. Once captured though, its not movable (by the players, anyway).

These details were revised in a more recent Crystal Hall forum post

Hmm... the Fonts question was tucked in with the geology ones... Fonts... can be moved. Takes a lot of work and resources, but its possible. Fonts can be 'splintered' which can result in the appearance of multiple minor Fonts... BUT, there is always a 'main' piece and the person who controls that can 'recall' the splinters back to the main bit... and capturing the main piece transfers control to the whole Font and immediately recalls the splinters. It also is likely to undo any movement from its 'home' position. The Fonts have places they like to be... and they typically protect themselves and that home from capture. So... moving a Font into a city is a huge benefit for the control of the Font and defense of that city... but if its lost, It's very likely that the city itself is going to be lost for good... as the land around it may warp to lock access to the Font off to its new owner.

Fonts cannot be destroyed. They CAN be released, which may cause the Font to jump to a protected neutral location where it is not at risk of being captured by anyone. However, releasing a Font takes a significant time and resources... not something you can do just because it looks like a battle isn't going your way and you're going to lose control of it. But... if a war is steadily moving toward the place you hold the Font and its important for the Font not to turn over to the enemy? You could try releasing it. It might even end the war if the whole point was the capture of the Font. But you may not find the Font again afterwards.

Further details about fonts were provided in an older Crystal Hall forum post.

Generally, the capture of a font is considered an army/kingdom level event and as a result; the font reflects the nature of the side that holds it. While this provides some basic advantages for everyone on that side, they tend to be fairly small unless you directly interact with the Font. That is, you engage the Font in one of a series of side oriented quests to empower your character to be something 'more' than their origin. For Dark side characters, these quests are often 'monsterization' quests... and it is one of the main methods by which which players end up as demons, dragons, or various other creatures of myth (the other being necromancy - and becoming undead of some sort). The Light side transformations are generally less dehumanizing, though it is possible to acquire traits of mythological beings... like elves. There are, after all, no 'real' elves in GEO (or any non-human race) by default.

Anyone who has access to the font and sufficient strength of character can undertake these quests. They are costly (rare materials and crafting efforts), and difficult. It IS possible for guilds who control the land around the font to restrict access to the Font, which the guild council has done with the font in the capital... which is NOT the Font that was captured from the evil kingdoms by Apropos Ring as part of Terecia's quest in the Fling storyline, by the way. It is also possible for the Font to be moved (magically) which allows it to be placed somewhere that can be secured/isolated from attack... including putting it in a guild keep/fortress, a city's castle, or in the depths of a dungeon. Of course, putting it in out of the way locations for security also limits access to it for normal use of the energy supply that it yields... so they will rarely get buried 'too deeply' out of common access.

The Fonts provide a mystic energy source that is parceled out based on capture involvement. The individuals who accomplished the most to take control of the Font (as individuals and as a guild) get the largest portion of strength/control, while those with the smallest involvement getting the lowest. The division of power inside guilds is dependent on guild structure (and to some extent on the manual settings defined by guild leadership... ie it could be shared evenly or the leader could keep the lion's share). What specifically can be done with the power depends on the individuals/guild. At the barest level, it can be applied directly to characters as an additional feed of character growth pts. It can be used as a power source for the creation of mystical weapons or armor. It can be channeled into the development/modification of land and structures around it (allow you to build guild halls, keeps, fortresses, without the normal process of bringing in resources and hiring NPC builders - similar to using the magic system to build, but without the mana/power cost limitations). It can shortcut the research process for skills, spells, or crafting. It can fuel short term buffs. And for those whose characters use magic, they can directly fuel spells with font energy instead of personal mana. This has risk associated to it though... potentially turning those characters into font-wraiths.

Font wraiths will likely turn with the Font, if the font is captured.

Font energy/access, like most things, can be exchanged as 'currency' or (more commonly) awarded as part of a quest reward. These amounts can be in either static pool amounts "awards 50 Font of the Light Sparks' or in active linkage to the Font "awards a 1% link to the Font of the Light" which could range from 1 Spark an hour to a couple hundred Sparks per hour depending on the active flow of energy in the Font. Of course, in order to create a quest in which you award Sparks or linkage, you have to have access to them yourself. Selling / dealing in Font energy is how these guilds got the position of being the most powerful on the server... 'everyone' who wants access is willing to join them or give them access to other resources.

The most powerful individuals who interact with the Font after capture will be granted an additional amount of font energy to serve as champion or guardian of the font. If they fail protect the font, the cost is high. Of course, there are rewards for successfully defending the font from serious attempts at capturing it (or from making a respectable effort and failing).

Of course... Apropos Ring is still out there... with its own font with energy feeds that aren't being bartered for other things on the open market (though they do allow free access to people who want to engage in font quests, but its a bit of a trip to get to the valley - which is now an AR fortress). They mostly don't engage in standard Light side politics by this time. After a few months of dealing with some internal matters, they almost completely spend their time on research and exploration deep in Dark territory. The most likely way that people hear about/from them, is via trickle down quests that show up in cities all over the Light Kingdoms on a regular basis... rewarding people with items not found anywhere locally or through common crafting.

Quests

Commentary about quests was provided in the Crystal Hall Forums.

It's perfectly acceptable to strike out in a random direction with no quest. Or to simply find a dojo and train. Or craft things. However, most people choose to be motivated by quests... because it'll let you do the same actions as you'd do on your own... AND you get a reward when its done. As far as quests go, GEO works on trickle down quests. But there are also world reaction quests, and purely player driven quests. What do these thigns mean?

World reaction quests. The 'population' system allows the spread or growth of wildlife in a given area based on resources. Lots of bunnies, you might attract wolves. More wolves, you might attract something nastier that likes to munch on wolves... or capture them for training, like Orcs. An NPC threatened by wolves while going about its daily collection of crops will set up a reactionary quest asking for help with the problem. If its bad, the quest will be spread at a further range with any NPC you come across in the region looking for someone to help with the problem. Once the wolves are cleared, the quest goes away. This is basically an awareness system that keeps a running report of which areas are the least often cleared by adventurers and rewards are offered to account for people changing their normal hunting grounds.

Player driven quests. Are just that. A player announces that they want something found, killed, delivered, or whatever... and will reward someone an item or money to recover it. It's a great way to deal with an item that you cannot use or to ensure a certain area is kept clear while you move deeper into the area beyond it (while someone else is keeping your line of retreat safe).

Trickle down quests. Are typically GM driven storyline quests. Say, for example, that I give a guild a quest to invade the Lightning Bluffs and destroy any lairs they find there. Most of that guild might be above the levels of skill needed to fight creatures leading to the Bluffs, but the Bluffs themselves are a tough zone for anyone in a weaker guild. So this guild offers quests to six other smaller guilds. Each of those guilds clears one of the preceding sites, opening the hole for the main guild to attack. In exchange, the main guild awards each of those guilds with something from an item list that none of those guilds are strong enough to acquire on their own... but which is just an 'extra' item sitting in their own guild vault. Then each of these six sub guilds realizes that it needs the standard raiding consumables prepared... potions, food, runestones, etc. They use their own crafters for some of those things, but also put out quests for anyone who can make say 'armor runestones' in lots of 50. And they offer a reward to let those people make the items for them.

Ultimately, the idea of a quest system and economy like this means that people do those things that reward them with skill or gear improvements but not those that they no longer get skill from doing or which they no longer get materials easily for (because the materials come from regions where they are no longer challenged).

Game entities

The GEO universe is comprised of 3 servers, Primus, Secundus, and Tertius. While most of the windows into the GEO universe look at Tertius, Secundus has also put in an appearance at times.

Kristin provided a few details about how the servers could differ in a Crystal Hall forum post.

Ways that GEO could play out differently from server to server? It is not uncommon for gamers to congregate by faction on a given server... this would have a very unique outcome on an open skill, classless game with minimal respawn creatures like GEO. As one side grew to have higher numbers of players, that side would find it more challenging to find opportunities for significant challenge for individuals and would tend to meet opposition in groups of balanced roles designed to beat encounters. At the same time, the faction with few members would face a constant build up of enemies that they wouldn't have the numbers to face one to one... resulting in far larger jumps in potential when beating challenges and in individual growth far exceeding what is given to groups for the same task. As a result... on servers where there are unbalanced numbers of players, the side with few members will have few but very powerful individuals and that faction will survive through the growth of NPC armies and construction projects. The side with many players will advance individually more slowly and will have to travel wider distances to find challenges to continue to advance.

GEO also relies on research, trial and error, practice, and teaching for the evolution of the skill/ability/spell system. If few players are inclined to delve into the spell system, researching more powerful or flexible variants of spells... magick will not evolve to the point of being a great influence in battle. Fewer players will take up magick because teachers won't be available and the cycle will continue until melee combat dominates that server's storyline. Similarly, if crafting is very popular in a given server or faction, it could result in a community that relies on the power of gear and enchanted items for character growth instead of skill training.

Exploration may be so popular on a given server that the original two starter kingdoms/factions more or less depopulate themselves. Or the war between those two small areas may rage so hotly that no one explores or advances through anything but battlefield gains.

What direction Primus and Secondus went... I never decided. I was content with just one world within the world. :)

Marala

Marala is Sara Waite's character. She starts out as a Temptress and eventually graduates to becoming a significant demon.

She later has a substantial part in the Apropos Ring adventure.

Apropos Ring

Fling is invited into the Apropos Ring for a quest.

The Quest starts, and the Ring comes across a looted and burning village.

Marala is told by the Dark Master to take the raiding party out. She worms her way into the Apropos ring party in the guise of Faye the Druid, the only survivor of another raiding party.

After the battle.

They approach the Font.

The Valley of the Font of Evil

Elsewhere, the Bandit Queen of the Denravi machinates.

Terecia(Jack) has a decision to make.

Jack makes his decision.

Garic ponders his next moves, and also worries about Terecia.

Characters

• Garic (Gary)
• Necina (Nadial) - Enchantress
• Terica (Jack Rizeppi) - Performer (a restricted archetype) and adventurer.
• Marala (Sara Waite) - Demon
• Seramis (Aunghadhail) - Trying to be the Big Neutral on the sidelines.

Quest for the Dark Gems of Marala

Ayla asks Marala for a gift for his friend Jonathan .

Quest to Assassinate Queen Seramis

Whisper and Shadow Killer are both given a Quest to assassinate Queen Seramis.

L.A.N.R.L.U.N.M. personnel uses GEO to investigate what happened to Brian Peters.

Characters

• Lady Whisper of the Order of the Four Winds Guild
• Shockem
• Lord Vincint (Jim Stiles)- Guild Leader of the Order of the Four Winds Guild
• Lord Calrent - Guild Leader of the Fates of Prophecy Guild
• Lady Celeste - Council of Light
• Lady Necina - Council of Light
• Queen Seramis (Aunghadhail)
• Shadow Killer (Damper)
• Lady Commander Kalisa (Brenda Koshnick) of the Order of the Four Winds Guild
• Lord General Grover - Queen Seramis' military

Other known players

• Roulette
• Kara (Guild's name is Altaholics Anonymous)
• Buster (Trying to become a Revenant, likely on Tertius, as he talks about a "Succubus that was in charge of that one area" who has power.)

Miscellaneous

Character Creation.